iTMS = IotY

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Apple’s iTunes Music Store has been named “Invention of the Year” by Time Magazine!

Other inventions this year may have more altruistic intentions (like Dean Kamen’s water purifier) or be more visible on street corners (like those ubiquitous camera cell phones). But for finally finding a middle ground between the foot-dragging record labels and the free-for-all digital pirates and for creating a bandwagon onto which its competitors immediately jumped, Apple’s iTunes Music Store is Time’s Coolest Invention of 2003.

Traditional Christian marriage

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The consecration of Gene Robison as bishop of the New Hampshire Diocese of the Episcopal Church is an affront to Christians everywhere. I am just thankful that the church’s founder, Henry VIII, and his wife Catherine of Aragon, and his wife Anne Boleyn, and his wife Jane Seymour, and his wife Anne of Cleves, and his wife Katherine Howard, and his wife Catherine Parr are no longer here to suffer through this assault on traditional Christian marriage.

— Paul Emmons, West Chester University

(via Dori Smith)

Klienfelters Syndrome

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While for most people these days, any discussion of men with breasts will immediately lead to quotes from Fight Club (“This is Bob. Bob had bitch tits.”), it’s a very real medical condition called Gynecomastia, sometimes developed as a result of Klienfelter Syndrome.

Klienfelters is a genetic condition, caused and characterized by having an extra bit of gene make up. Where most people have either a 36 YY or 26 XY Genetic make up depending if they are male or female, some people have variations of the standard. Klienfelters Syndrome people typically have a 37XXY Gene. Technically this makes them neither male or female. Klienfelters Syndrome people appear and are accepted as male. In many cases, people who have the condition may not realise they have it.

Some symptoms of Klienfelters include:

  • Slight outward turning of legs, similar to Downs Syndrome.
  • Slight to significant brain retardation and hence slow learning.
  • Problems with linguistics; reading and language skills.
  • Short attention spans.
  • Development of breasts at puberty.
  • Wider hips than normal.
  • Appear to be overweight from puberty (some Internet sites say the opposite).
  • Infertility.
  • Short life spans.

The best and most definitive way to work out if a person has Klienfelters is to have a test for the 37XXY genetic makeup from a blood sample.

I happened across one person’s website about their experiences growing up in a small town with Klienfelters Syndrome.

His story fascinated me. While you’d expect that someone in his position in a small town would be regarded as a “freak” of some sort, he actually was lucky enough to be very accepted by his (predominantly female) family and the community. Raised with three sisters and a mother who didn’t enforce the usual gender stereotypes, he lived mostly as a girl from an early age. At the onset of puberty, the development of his breasts enforced this, and while he knew he was a boy, he was able to spend most of his childhood comfortably, without being ostracized, harassed, or abused by the people around him.

As he grew older and moved out into the world, of course, things didn’t always go as smoothly, and he now lives most of his life in public appearing masculine, but still primarily self-identifying as feminine — though not homosexual — when he’s at home. Even in a society that is (slowly, but finally) becoming more tolerant of homosexuality, trans-gendered people, and the entire GLBT spectrum, it’s interesting to hear from people like this who still “fall through the cracks,” and don’t quite fit into any of the nice, neat little boxes that we’re forever trying to fit people into.

(via Something Positive)

[Update:]{.underline}

Sure, it’s possible that his story is a load of hooey. I still find the gender identity issues interesting.

Feed of the day

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Nifty — I have no idea what the selection criteria is (quality? frequency? content? entirely random?) but it seems that I’m being highlighted as “Feed of the day” on Feedster. So…hello to all of you who wander my way!

Employment is a good thing

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Oh, by the way…starting Tuesday, I’m working again.

Actually, I’ll be working tomorrow, too, on a one-day assignment from my temp agency. But Tuesday I start training for my new position.

It’s nothing overly glamourous — no dream job, no mind-bogglingly cool opportunities were dropped into my lap during my week of notoriety — but it’s a good steady job, which I’m quite satisfied with. I don’t want to get into too many details (for hopefully obvious reasons), but it’s another quick-print shop, running copiers, dealing with customers, etc. It will do quite nicely for the foreseeable future as I continue to work on getting enough bills paid to be able to investigate loans and grants to get me back into school, which I hope to accomplish in the coming year or so.

In any case, the main thing is that I only had to deal with two weeks of stressing about unemployment. I’m making a bit less than I was before, but not so much so that I have to worry overly much. I just won’t be able to splurge on another new computer anytime soon. ;)

Thanks again to everyone who provided support, through comments, e-mails, messages, phone calls, and everything else.

Taking cues from Reagan

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Much as I may dislike Rumsfeld (along with the rest of the Bush administration), I always figured he at least had some amount of intelligence. But this latest “I didn’t say that” spiel is nothing short of ludicrous…

…on Feb. 20, a month before the invasion, Rumsfeld fielded a question about whether Americans would be greeted as liberators if they invaded Iraq.

“Do you expect the invasion, if it comes, to be welcomed by the majority of the civilian population of Iraq?” Jim Lehrer asked the defense secretary on PBS’ “The News Hour.”

“There is no question but that they would be welcomed,” Rumsfeld replied, referring to American forces. “Go back to Afghanistan, the people were in the streets playing music, cheering, flying kites, and doing all the things that the Taliban and the al-Qaeda would not let them do.”

[…]

But on Sept. 25, – a particularly bloody day in which one U.S. soldier was killed in an ambush, eight Iraqi civilians died in a mortar strike and a member of the U.S-appointed governing council died after an assassination attempt five days earlier – Rumsfeld was asked about the surging resistance.

“Before the war in Iraq, you stated the case very eloquently and you said . . . they would welcome us with open arms,” Sinclair Broadcasting anchor Morris Jones said to Rumsfeld as the prelude to a question.

The defense chief quickly cut him off. “Never said that,” he said. “Never did. You may remember it well, but you’re thinking of somebody else. You can’t find, anywhere, me saying anything like either of those two things you just said I said.”

Does Rummy really think he’ll be able to get away with claiming that he didn’t say these things? In today’s ‘net connected world, anything said on the public record is there for good once it propagates into news stories posted across the ‘net.

If Rummy’s memory is really that bad, perhaps Google could help him refresh it with results like this PBS transcript of the interview with Jim Lehrer that the quote comes from. Or this Department of Defense transcript of the same interview.

Let’s try that “You can’t find, anywhere, me saying anything like either of those two things you just said I said,” statement again, shall we?

(via Will)

I'm such an underachiever

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Some days I think I’m doing okay in my life. I may not have a set career or a ton of money or anything along those lines, but I’m not doing too badly.

Then, I find things like this: Things Other People Accomplished When They Were Your Age…

At age 30:

Mark Twain published his first short story, “Jim Smiley and His Jumping Frog.”

Danish novelist Hans Christian Andersen published his book of fairy tales.

Nat Turner led a slave rebellion.

U.S. mariner Moses Rogers made the first ocean steamboat voyage.

Donald Trump persuaded bankers to lend him \$80 million so he could buy the Commodore Hotel.

Samuel Morse’s assistant, Alfred Lewis Vail, devised Morse code.

Physicist Armand H. L. Fizeau measured the speed of light.

Dr. Narinder Kapany invented fiber optics and designed a glass gastroscope which can be snaked down the throat for a detailed view of the stomach.

Hank Williams overdosed on drugs and alcohol.

Bill Gates was the first person ever to become a billionaire by age 30.

Earl Vickers started the Dollar Project, in which dollar bills were rubber-stamped as being lost, with a reward offered for their safe return.

(via MeFi)

The Purity of the English Language

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The problem with defending the purity of the English language is that English is about as pure as a cribhouse whore. We don’t just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary.

— James D. Nicoll

What the hell's on my doorknob?

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Doorknob goo

I’d just finished getting dressed to head out to the club, when I walked out the door and reached behind me to swing the door shut. When I grabbed the handle, though, something seemed wrong — it felt slick. Odd. I turned to see if there was actually something there or if I was just fooling myself, and found…well, I don’t know what.

The entire doorplate on my door has been covered in some sort of slick goo that I can’t identify, enough so that the goo has dripped down the front of my door. There’s a slightly sweet smell that I can’t identify to the goo, and it appears to be eating through the paint on the door.

Needless to say, the first thing I did was get back into my apartment and wash my hands. I didn’t want whatever it was to be on my skin any longer than absolutely necessary. After that, I went back out and checked the rest of the doors on my floor to see if any of them had this same thing happening.

Nope. Just my door.

It eats away at the paint

Needless to say, this has got me somewhat freaked out. And, of course, there’s nobody I can call or ask about it, as it’s 11pm on a Friday night. Hardly office hours.

Is it just a prank of some sort? Or something more serious? Am I being targeted directly for some reason? It’s possible — with my resumé online, my address is now public knowledge, and I’ve discussed my DVD collection, my computers, my CDs, and who knows what all else online in the past. It’s at least theoretically possible that someone could have tried — or be planning to try — to get into my apartment while I’m away.

I have no idea what to do now. I’ve taken these photos, but I’m not sure if this is enough to make a call to the police. I don’t really want to leave, just in case it is someone planning on entering my apartment while I’m gone.

This sucks. And I’m freaked.

Grrrr.

It'll never happen, but…

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Well, word just broke on the ‘net this past week that Microsoft is moving to the IBM PowerPC processor (the same family of processors used in Apple‘s Power Mac G5) for their next generation of XBox game systems.

Interesting.

So. Randomly putting things together in my head.

First thought: if the XBox is moving to an IBM PowerPC processor — assumedly at least similar to the G5, if not the same processor — wouldn’t they need development/testing machines? Could it be that I’ve finally figured out whose toes I stepped on? I doubt I’ll ever know…but it’s worth thinking about.

Second thought: Not terribly long ago, Microsoft acquired Connectix. This was most notable at the time because Connectix’ flagship product was Virtual PC, which allows Macs to run Windows software through emulation of a x86-compatible PC. Less noted, though, was another older Connectix product that has been discontinued, the Virtual Game Station, which used similar emulation technology to allow the Mac to play original Sony PlayStation games.

Wouldn’t it be cool if Microsoft retooled the VGS codebase to produce a “Virtual XBox” for G5 Power Macs? It’ll never happen, if for no other reason than pure marketing dollars (I’m sure they’d rather have people buy a \$200 Xbox than a \$50 piece of software — playing Devil’s Advocate, though, there might be more profit margin on that \$50 piece of software, plus it would drive game sales…). In any case, it’s also fun to think about.

(via codepoetry)